Oliver Half Iron Triathlon Race Report!

Oliver Half-Iron Triathlon

...well that was fun... kinda sorta!

I am pleased to report I survived my first attempt at the half-iron triathlon distance.... suffice to say it was a *little* different than the sprints / olympic distance stuff that I've done in the past - and when I say *little* different, I mean in the "what? I can't go anaerobic / balls to the wall the ENTIRE time and still finish?". In any case, here's my "so-called race" report from this past weekend.

I can say without hesitation that I still absolutely suck donkey-ass in swimming (who takes 62 minutes to swim 2km? Oh wait, that would be ME!) It was my first open water swim of the year and thankfully shoe-horning myself into my wetsuit wasn't actually part of the race or I would have been dead last from the sound of the gun! Couldn't get into any sort of rhythm at all during the swim and was zig-zagging like some sort of Grand Slalom downhill skiier.... Must have been absolutely PAINFUL for spectators to witness from the beach - "Hey, who's the idiot swimming perpendicular to the swim-course?!" I'm sure the other swimmers were saying the exact same thing as I found myself bouncing off of others left and right like a pinball the whole way, and of course being slower than EVERYONE, people had to swim around me, over me, under me, etc etc. No matter how hard I tried to stay wide of the main traffic, I kept veering right back into it... Note to self, learn how to sight before Ironman... Regardless, I was simply happy to *complete* my first attempt at swimming 2km in open water considering I could barely swim 100m around this time last year without getting my heart-rate up to about 220..... for crying out loud.... Anyway, lot of work to do in the lake over the next 12 weeks cuz if I have this kind of swim up at Ironman, it's going to be a RRRREEEEEAAALLLLY loooooong day.

So next was the bike... I was "instructed" to just treat it as a training day so as I was doing cart-wheels through the transition area since I simply made it out of the water alive, I had to keep reminding myself not to hammer like a mad-man during the ride. Of course that's easier said than done since I was so jacked on the fact I was still upright and breathing, and not lying in the back of the EMS ambulance with a couple paramedics yelling "CLEAAAAR!!" as they attempted to revive my lifeless carcass. Anyway, jumped on my bike and started BLOWING by people which felt fantastic, but not really part of the race plan. Once I settled down and got my heart rate to something respectable, it all worked out to a comfortable 2hr 47minutes on the 92km bike course (was 96th overall for the bike). I think that averaged to around 20 or 20.5 mp/h which was great for the rolling course. Was REALLY nice to get off my bike and actually be able to jog back through transition but I did hang out there for a little longer than I should of - mental note - put my speedlaces back on! In my previous sprint races, my legs were rather twitchy and it took me a while to stop cursing at the thought of still having to run but at least this time, sitting down on the concrete to put my shoes on wasn't an exercise in futility...

So after I jammed my feet into my runners, I started haulin ass to the run course when one of the marshalls near the END of transition was nice enough to point out I forgot my race-belt / number.... After hauling ass BACK to my bike (about 100 meters the opposite direction) to find my number, I was finally out on the run course after a rather long transition, but oh well, what's a minute here or there WASTED from stupidity? So anyway, I don't think I've spent more than 1.5 hours on my feet since the California marathon last December, so I was a little worried what was going to happen. It was nice being able to actually RUN coming off the bike as opposed to shuffle/limp/cramp/stretch/curse/jog/repeat. Still, I literally didn't know if I was going to implode 5km into the run or 15km into the run so I figured I better run purely on heart rate as opposed to trying to keep my normal half-marathon pace (which is normally around 1:30 to 1:35 - but a little easier when you haven't rode for almost 3 hours!). Anyway, first aid station, it felt like I was grocery shopping since I gunned down a bunch of gatorade, a gel shot, a couple slices of oranges and I think a chocolate chip cookie that was crushed in the process of trying to grab everything. Basically just ran until my watch started beeping at me letting me know I was out of my zone1 heart rate which I wanted to stick to for at least the first couple miles. At this point, I noticed my watch wasn't showing any pace - *sigh*.... wasn't going to stop and figure it out so I just kept truckin along and relied on heart-rate. Was a nice and slooooooow pace in order to keep my heart from exploding (around 9:00min/miles), but legs felt great the whole time and as much as I wanted to drop the hammer and push, I stuck to the race plan and literally treated it like a Sunday long training run. No idea what was going to happen so I figure I'd just go at this pace until I knew the end was near and pick it up LATER rather than sooner. For once I actually stuck to the plan! Saw my buddies at various points of the run with signs and doing the wave and cowbells and all sorts of other fun stuff so that was fantastic. The people lining the course were great and everyone at each aid-station was awesome! I remember at one of them I asked for a pillow and a comforter instead of the regular "water/gatorade/gel/or fruit and the gal *almost* took me seriously! Always gotta keep a sense of humour I tell ya....

So all in, finished right at 6hrs feeling fantastic - albeit a little disappointed I panicked like a little baby during the swim and probably could have went a LOT quicker during the run - but I really just wanted to finish strong and boost my confidence for Ironman Canada.

Anyway, thanx to the tremendous support of my buddies who came up to support myself and a bunch of others in our "pre-ironman" warm-up race. If any of you want to send me some "long-course open water anti-panic tips" - that would be greatly appreciated ;)

I'll post some pics as soon as the gang sends them over!

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend and look forward to catching up with ya'all soon!!!

Tav!